The Americas’ Oldest Most Complete Human Skeleton

May 15, 2014---The skeleton of a teenage girl who lived during the last ice age has been determined to be the oldest most complete human skeleton ever discovered in the New World. Researchers expect that the 12,000- to 13,000-year-old remains, found in an underwater cave in 2007, will increase our understanding of the Americas’ first people, and establish a definitive link between earliest Americans and modern Native Americans.

The expedition was led by the Mexican government's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and supported by the National Geographic Society. It will be featured in National Geographic magazine and on a National Geographic/NOVA special that will air on PBS in 2015.

The Americas’ Oldest Most Complete Human Skeleton

May 15, 2014---The skeleton of a teenage girl who lived during the last ice age has been determined to be the oldest most complete human skeleton ever discovered in the New World. Researchers expect that the 12,000- to 13,000-year-old remains, found in an underwater cave in 2007, will increase our understanding of the Americas’ first people, and establish a definitive link between earliest Americans and modern Native Americans.

The expedition was led by the Mexican government's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and supported by the National Geographic Society. It will be featured in National Geographic magazine and on a National Geographic/NOVA special that will air on PBS in 2015.

JAMES C. CHATTERS, ARCHAEOLOGIST AND PALEONTOLOGIST: At the bottom of Hoyo Negro, which is a large collapsed chamber inside an underwater cave, lie the bones of a girl—a 16-year-old girl—and a gompothere. We have determined that that girl is one of the earliest human skeletons in the Americas.

We’ve been about to determine, using radiocarbon dating of tooth enamel and uranium thorium dating of calcium carbonate crystals that formed on the bone after the bone came to rest on the bottom of the cave, that “Naia” died between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago.

Hoyo Negro is going to tell us about the human life, animal life and plant life of Ice Age Central America. It’s a time capsule that is absolutely unequaled.

ALBERTO NAVA, BAY AREA UNDERWATER EXPLORERS & NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GRANTEE: As we were swimming around , all of a sudden we start finding bones. We go a little bit up and we look and then there’s this human skull. It’s upside-down, you know, beautiful teeth kind of pointing up. And then you have the eye socket. We were like, “Okay, this is the discover of our lifetime.” It’s not going to get any better than this.

JAMES C. CHATTERS: Hoyo Negro at its bottom is over sixty meters in diameter. It’s the size of an American football field.

Along with the girl and the gompothere at the bottom of Hoyo Negro are bones of nine other species of animals. Large animals. And included are saber tooth cats, giant ground sloths—two species including one that is new to science. There are cougars, cave bears, coyotes, bobcats and other small animals.

PILAR LUNA, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY: This is a unique opportunity for Mexico, with the experts and the group and the team that is working together, to get this knowledge and to set the standards of what you can do with the right people, with the right tools, with the right authorities of the country.

JAMES C. CHATTERS: We now have Naia’s skull. And Naia has a complete skull. And from that complete skull we are going to reconstruct her face. And so we are going to be looking on the face of the earliest American that we know of. And part of what’s surprising is our earliest American is a teenage girl!

The Americas’ Oldest Most Complete Human Skeleton

May 15, 2014---The skeleton of a teenage girl who lived during the last ice age has been determined to be the oldest most complete human skeleton ever discovered in the New World. Researchers expect that the 12,000- to 13,000-year-old remains, found in an underwater cave in 2007, will increase our understanding of the Americas’ first people, and establish a definitive link between earliest Americans and modern Native Americans.

The expedition was led by the Mexican government's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and supported by the National Geographic Society. It will be featured in National Geographic magazine and on a National Geographic/NOVA special that will air on PBS in 2015.